Prize rules

[rudewarrior]

Originally Posted by John Pancoast

Rudewarrior, by 1942 were u-boat crews even bothering with boarding attempts ?
I was under the impression that stopping/boarding was strictly a very early war only scenario due to various reasons.

I do not know if there are any documented attempts; however, here are the conditions under which it would happen in late 1942:

1. The surface ship would have to be outside the blockade zone, which essentially encompassed the British Isles and Iceland.
2. It could not be a British merchant ship (exception: if it was an unarmed/unescorted passenger ship it could not engaged at will).
3. It could not be an armed French/Norwegian/Dutch/Belgian ship.
4. It could not be darkened.

This was the directive, as of 16 May 1941. Part of the Prize Rules said that you could engage any armed merchant as well.

I would assume any American merchant ship would be eligible for attack once war had been declared as well. No source to officially declare this change of stance, but seems reasonable given the political situation by that point. By late '42 the vast majority of American ships carried some sort of armament. Most merchants were armed as well.

So you can see the conditions for that happening would be pretty rare. However, I got the impression that convoys would form at certain staging areas, then go to Britain or points in the Med. Prior to that ships would be coming in small escorted convoys, like the 3 merchant + 1 escort convoys you would see in the game. Then at lower security you would see an armed merchant paired with an unarmed merchant. Then you might see the single ship who went with "the big ocean theory" hoping to not get spotted. I suspect you might see things like this off the coast of southern Africa as they were coming up to assemble at Freetown.

Removing the deck gun ramped up toward that time as well, with it really becoming a serious thing in the beginning of '43.

Also, german uboat doctrine seemed to be forced into operating further out to try and get these ships. The closer the ships got to England, the bigger and more heavily protected (including air cover) the convoys got. So command seemed to think that uboats had to get out further than that to be truly effective, especially with the Type IXs.

So, as you can see, the conditions exist, but they would be pretty rare. However, I do think a uboat Kaleun would prefer to use the deck gun in order to spare torpedoes, but, by that time, I figure they would be pretty cautious (or dead).

[FUBAR295]

FWIW, I use Rudewarrior's simulated stopping the same way he pointed out and make the determination to sink or not according to the target's behavior.

This mod is a must for immersion IMHO.

[John Pancoast]

Thanks for the great info. rudewarrior ! Yes, I was thinking more in terms of u-boat safety; as you know I'm sure, one of the main reasons they quit stopping, etc. ships was because of the ships firing on them, signaling their location, etc., all of which the ships started doing fairly early on.
I'm surprised it's even mentioned in the handbook, at that stage of the war.

Maybe like most handbooks, there was the book way and there was the real life way.

[rudewarrior]

Originally Posted by John Pancoast

I'm surprised it's even mentioned in the handbook, at that stage of the war.

Maybe like most handbooks, there was the book way and there was the real life way.

Just to give complete info:

My understanding is that the book was compiled by successful uboat commanders. Well, if you look at the timing, it was much easier to be successful before 1943. I suspect all of the commanders involved had now finished their combat careers, so they had been out of action for a period of time. Once you finished going to sea and got promoted, you generally started working administratively, which includes training. I suspect they collectively decided it would be a beneficial training aid. So all of the info in the book would apply had the war continued on as it was. However, as we all know now, things shifted dramatically in the beginning of 1943. The tactics become useless pretty quickly after that.

I will say that, for any SH3 aficionado, the book is worth reading. It is pretty short, could probably read it in 1/2 hour or so. Gives good insight into what they were thinking at the time. Kind of informs your gameplay as well if you are looking for immersion.

[John Pancoast]

Originally Posted by rudewarrior

Just to give complete info:

My understanding is that the book was compiled by successful uboat commanders. Well, if you look at the timing, it was much easier to be successful before 1943. I suspect all of the commanders involved had now finished their combat careers, so they had been out of action for a period of time. Once you finished going to sea and got promoted, you generally started working administratively, which includes training. I suspect they collectively decided it would be a beneficial training aid. So all of the info in the book would apply had the war continued on as it was. However, as we all know now, things shifted dramatically in the beginning of 1943. The tactics become useless pretty quickly after that.

I will say that, for any SH3 aficionado, the book is worth reading. It is pretty short, could probably read it in 1/2 hour or so. Gives good insight into what they were thinking at the time. Kind of informs your gameplay as well if you are looking for immersion.

Yes, I got a copy of it many years ago.